Geller Advisors LLC Purchases New Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Geller Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 9,430 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $552,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 8,038 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $456,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 5,289 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $310,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 107.3% during the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 15,632 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $915,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,631 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $773,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 price target (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.39.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE WRB opened at $72.47 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $67.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $62.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.61, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $51.17 and a 52 week high of $76.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. As a group, analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.42%.

W. R. Berkley Company Profile

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial lines writers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines.